Direct and Indirect Costs Among United States Commercially Insured Employees With Migraine

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare direct, indirect, and societal (direct plus indirect) costs between patients with and without migraine (controls). METHODS: Patients with migraine were identified from MarketScan claims and Health and Productivity Management databases from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2013, and were propensity score matched (1:1) to controls. RESULTS: Patients with migraine (N = 26,647) were matched to controls, of whom 4323 were matched for work absence and 26,212 for short-term disability eligibility. Mean annualized direct costs ($13,032 vs $3234), indirect costs due to absence ($4104 vs $3531) and short-term disability ($1131 vs $52), and societal costs due to absence ($16,043 vs $6938) and short-term disability ($14,278 vs $3182) were all significantly higher (P < 0.001) for those patients with migraine versus controls, respectively. CONCLUSION: Migraine imposes high direct and indirect economic burden on payers and society due to significantly higher work productivity loss than controls.